“whopper virgins”

this post is long overdue…but i saw a commercial back in december that directed me to whoppervirgins.com. basically burger king commissioned a team of filmmakers and researchers to find people in three remote locations (thailand, greenland and romania) who had never eaten a hamburger before, much less a burger king hamburger. then they asked the person to compare a whopper with a big mac and say what was better. (whopper won)

i was totally appalled at first.

like–just the use of the word “virgin”–bk’s big dick popping burger cherries around the globe. considering what crap is used in fast food, the environmental impacts of bk’s expansion, the economic impacts around the globe. one requirement of the taste test was that there would have to be a mcdonalds and bk close enough so the burgers would be the absolute “freshest.” clearly, these fast food chains have already taken over the whole fucking world so why root out the few people who haven’t been tainted by icky american food?

then i took a step back…

what if the folks in romania, greenland and thailand find it super exciting/intriguing to see how enthusiastic some americans are about getting them to try a few burgers? i wonder how much they get compensated?

and hey–some people do find hamburgers extremely tasty. what’s wrong with feeding some people, compensating them (i’m sure) and wrapping it up into a neat little video to display on the internet?

at least it’s an interesting ad campaign…

not so fast! this whole thing is a lesson in anthropology –how one people from one culture view another culture and bring back what they’ve “learned.” this is no independent film here folks. these bk guys are in search of people who “really live outside of things” and they are “really curious to see their expressions” when faced with a whopper. like here we are–aren’t we americans great? we are saving these poor (backwards?) disconnected people from a lifetime of wondering what the hell a “sándwich americán” tastes like.

furthermore, what about all those people who said a big mac is better? (the majority is not always correct)

i don’t know. this all just doesn’t sit right with me.

what about a third option: a homemade, grass-fed, free range burger with ripe tomatoes, non-shitty lettuce and fresh baked bread (or even designed with consideration for the individual’s traditional diet). which one do you think would win?

unbelieveable!

i’ve been earning some extra money indexing files for this woman and i just came across her water bill…

in 93 days her modest house used 700 cubic feet of water with an average daily consumption of 7 cubic feet. total use in gallons in 93 days is 5,000 with an average usage of 56 gallons per day!!

guess how much the bill was for?

only $12.60!!

can you imagine going into a store and buying 56 gallons of water each day? (and then transporting it to your house, no less) you might be able to find a gallon of water for $2 so we’re talking about $112 a day to buy water from a store. that’s $10,416 in 93 days!

i know we both live near the chesapeake watershed area which is the largest (?) in the U.S. but i was just listening to Peter Singer on the radio today talk about his new book/campaign. here’s a quote from the website:

For the first time in history, it is now within our reach to eradicate world poverty and the suffering it brings. Yet around the world, a billion people struggle to live each day on less than many of us pay for bottled water. And though the number of deaths attributable to poverty worldwide has fallen dramatically in the past half-century, nearly ten million children still die unnecessarily each year.

Singer was explaining to Diane Rhem (LOVE her!) how a large part of what all these kids (age 5 and under) are suffering dying from is diarrhea from unsafe drinking water.

america’s water usage (and over-consumption in general) affects everyone in the world. people are dying because they can’t access the water we use to hose out our assholes or whatever. water is NOT FREE. it is NOT CHEAP! maybe if gas & electric bills were made lower (so, you know, people don’t freeze in the winter time) and we made water bills higher (FUCK LAWNS!) then some of these water-consumption issues would be drastically reduced and people would think twice about taking a half-an-hour shower or fixing a leaky toilet.

have you heard what’s going on in california? by the time winter rolls around you might be hard-pressed to find an out-of-season fruit or vegetable. (buy local and can your shit!)

my high school environment science teacher theorized that the next world war will be over water and food. i don’t doubt it.